Why Airbnb is dead to me • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#161

Post by mistermann » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:30 PM UTC

dandare wrote: post #146

mistermann wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older I get the more cynical I get, and the further I drift leftward politically in favor of more government regulation, the underlying reason I think being that generally speaking, most cultures (and especially "high achievers" within) are fundamentally dishonest - like teenagers, they often cannot be trusted with serious responsibility. They have highly potent skills, but they don't have the corresponding matur…

A guy from post communist country here: how is more government regulation going to solve anything?

By restricting what companies can and cannot do and forcing them to prove certain risks are genuinely covered before coming in and "disrupting" (aka destroying) industries that have generally done a somewhat decent job of things for decades.

I'm just getting tired of people advocating free market principles and proclaiming that industries will police themselves, and then turning around and lying and cheating, with next to no consequences. I'm saying this as a pretty extreme economic right wing person - today's conservatives bear little resemblance to traditional ones.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#162

Post by bachmeier » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:31 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #133

bachmeier wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wondered why the story was dropping so fast. Currently, the story above it has 57 points, 1 comment, and was posted 4 hours ago. This one has 125 points, 45 comments, and was posted 1 hour ago.

The way we treat threads like this has been consistent for years. Here's how it works. We penalize indignation and/or sensational stories unless there is something unusually interesting about them. Indignation does not gratify intellectual curiosity, which is the mandate of this site. It does, though, attract large numbers of upvotes—most consistently. That's a weakness of the voting system and a countervailing mecha…

Thanks for the explanation.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#163

Post by pavornyoh » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:36 PM UTC

What a story. A bit scary especially in a foreign country.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#164

Post by pavornyoh » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:38 PM UTC

k3oni wrote: post #66

flippyhead wrote: post #10

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had…

A bit off-topic but curious if you usee AirBnB only or if you tried HomeAway/VRBO as well?

Airbnb is much better than homeaway.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#165

Post by josefresco » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:39 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #160

josefresco wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Day of arrival refunds don't work for any industry that relies on reservations, appointments, or rigid scheduling. It doesn't need to be "impossible" to get a refund, but being able to show up and say "no thanks" (for seemingly any reason) when the result is the business losing substantial revenue - is a bad situation for all.

Well, it often does with hotels up to 6pm or so if guaranteed with a credit card. My point is that there is a very wide variance in properties. While some walkaways will be for trivial or non-existent reasons in the minds of an average person, others will be for much more substantial reasons. Property ratings aside, it's really hard for the broker (Airbnb) to distinguish those except in the most extreme cases. As a r…

"hotels up to 6pm" maybe big city, high volume hotels which have no problem re-booking. For smaller accommodation businesses with a limited stock, 24-48 hours is standard.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#166

Post by notahacker » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:40 PM UTC

vinceguidry wrote: post #85

ghaff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does require however, for better or worse, a deliberate decision to operate in that manner. Certainly many eBay sellers, many of whom were doubtless perfectly respectable, became very disillusioned with eBay once they tilted in that direction.

Being that AirBnB is in the customer service field, not really a true marketplace, a customer-centric dispute policy makes total sense. Hosts that can't grasp the concept of "make your customers happy" are only going to hurt the overall AirBnB brand and should be sussed out and expelled quickly.

The main difference between being in the customer service field rather than a true marketplace is that people are far more likely to complain - reasonably or otherwise - about service than goods they've received. Especially when the customer is used to experiencing (and paying more for) a much higher level of service.

Having very limited accommodation is also damaging to AirBNB's brand.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#167

Post by alexqgb » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:40 PM UTC

notvladputin wrote: post #135

potatolicious wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a theme with pretty much all internet companies, big and small - undercut the competition by cutting corners on things that "don't matter", until they matter. Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You. Ditto Uber/Lyft/other cab companies, where there seems to be no end of people who were put…

IME non-internet, big corporations, are no better than google. Try reaching someone at your health insurance provider, or almost any other 'customer support" / complaint line.

In my experience this isn't so. While most companies are reliably bad, I have never had a customer service experience as cartoonishly awful as the one I got from Google. And that was for a paid service.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#168

Post by cirenehc » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:42 PM UTC

I've had some horrible experience with Airbnb in LA. One place has close to perfect reviews (the lowest scored category is 8/10 in cleanliness), but the place is dirtier than a gas station's bathroom (smelly sheets, moldy showers, dirty old floor and squeaky bed). I've never met the host in person and he ran this thing like a refugee camp; there are about 50 people living in that (fairly large) complex and no one seemed happy. I went back to hotels/hostels after that experience.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#169

Post by fokinsean » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

flippyhead wrote: post #10

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had…

Have you tried HomeAway?

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#170

Post by subpixel » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

scottmcdot wrote: post #28

Just tonight, my mother checked into an Airbnb in Vienna, Austria. She sent me photos of the bed which did not have new sheets, the towels which were not fresh, a band aid on the floor and some rubbish bins full of cigarettes and ash. The apartment was overall pretty dirty. The host's contact phone number goes straight to message bank (I also tried many times) and the host is not answering emails. In this situation,…

Here's a recipe for having AirBnB experiences that don't suck:

1. Don't make saving money a prerequisite.

Nobody is renting out their place in order to save you money. You get what you pay for.

2. Book early.

The good hosts in prime cities book up months out. You don't want to be in a situation where you have limited choices and have to lower your standards.

3. Only book with hosts who have many positive reviews.

See above, and never break this rule.

4. Try to stay at least a week.

It's business. When you represent a grand or more to your hosts, they treat you accordingly. But when the hassle inherent to renting to you is barely worth the $200 or so you're paying, service will suffer.

Any time I've broken any of these tenets I've wished I'd just booked a hotel.